Unholy Rapture
by Gallifrey Immigrant
Summary: Every single light stabbed into his soul like a dagger. (Written for who contest's Rapture prompt.)


The inky blackness of the cosmos was disturbed by an appearance of a blue box, shuttling fast toward planet. It rushed through the atmosphere, and small wisps of smoke began to rise off its surface. Finally, it hit the grassy ground in a crash. The boom of the impact could be heard miles away.

The doors were flung open, and out rushed a man with a dirty velvet jacket. His curly hair was matted and dirty, and his boots were caked with so much dirt that they looked black. His eyes were tired, but he ran like a man full of energy through the fields.

He could taste the smell of ozone in the air. It was the smell of death being readied.

The Doctor could feel the time to act slipping away. Companion-less now,yet again, he felt slightly empty. It was like being a man with a cane—you could still walk, but you missed the feeling of both legs all the same. The ache burned as he adventured, and secretly, he knew he would take another companion one day, although he had promised himself he wouldn't. But for right now, with his hearts beating, he knew that this life he was living now was too dangerous for any companion.

He could see a blinding white light coming from a not too far away. It hurt him to look at, and not just physically. Tat light represented everything that his stupid, horrific, idiotic race did wrong. They were so sure that they had control, and that they had the moral right for everything. They didn't care about the small people in the way. Last regeneration, he had nearly become the same sort of monster, and he vowed not to be that way in this life.

Caught in thought, he almost crashed into a barbed fence. He hopped over the barbed fence in his path and kept on running. Ley lines of temporal energy were tingling through his skin as he got closer to the source of the energy. He put a hand over his eyes, trying to see what was up ahead. He thought he could see a few people standing in the road. He began waving them down. Perhaps there was still time-

The blast of energy that came from the light source threw the Doctor several feet in the air. He fell with a large thump, the mud staining his shirt even more. The heat scalded his flesh, and he screamed in agony before falling unconscious.

When he came to, he saw thousands of shining lights.

"Oh, that's pretty," he said. And then he nearly vomited when the stench hit his nose. He covered his nose, but the stench was all around him. He pushed himself up, and saw the scorched planet around him. Thousands of burning, rotting bodies were surrounded him. Then he remembered why he came to this place.

The Doctor stared as the Gelth, affected by the Time Lord weapon, left their corporal bodies and were transformed into gaseous forms. He could hear crying, and screaming, as the people realized how horrifically they had been transformed. It was like countless flash lights. Every single soul that passed into the atmosphere was a knife straight into the Time Lord's hearts. He stared at the procession with a blank face, shaking his head unconsciously.

Eventually, the procession of the dead victims ended. Where they would go, the Doctor had no way of knowing. After several minutes alone on a dead planet, the Doctor walked through the muddy, almost melted ground, to his TARDIS. The doors of the ship were so how from the explosion, that it took several tries to open the door. Slamming the door behind him, he contacted Gallifrey immediately.

A familiar voice replied to him. "Well, this is a surprise," said Karlax. "Why would you call now? Have you changed your mind about joining the War?"

"No, and I never will," said the Doctor firmly. "The De-corporus was just released on Gelth—and don't you tell me it didn't happen, because I was there. Now, I'm only asking you once-did the CIA and the other Time Lords know about it?"

A long pause ensued. "That's technically classified," said Karlax, and the Doctor could just see the smug smile on that man's face. "But, you say that the De-corporus was used by the Gelth? What a pity. We had lost that weapon somewhere, and were rather worried about it. But, it seems to have resolved itself. Were there casualties?"

"Casualties? Oh, only that entire planet is dead," said the Doctor bitingly.

A longer pause ensued. "Well, that's sad. At least the weapon won't fall into enemy hands—there were reports of Dalek spies in Gelth."

The Doctor internally cursed. An entire civilization was changed forever, and might just die out there in space, and all the Council cared about was weapons falling into the wrong hands. Something Karlax said nagged the Doctor's mind, though. "You said there were spies?"

"Well, further information is classi-" started Karlax.

"Did the Time Lords leave that weapon on the planet on purpose? Did you really risk so many innocent lives just to get an advantage in your accursed conflict? Are you truly so callous? Are you?" said the Doctor into the comm link, his hearts beating faster in rage.

Karlax laughed, and said "First off, don't shout. And second, no, of course . we weren't planning this unfortunate event. That would be..."

"Absurd, right," said the Doctor darkly. His fists were holding the bars of his console so tight that he was losing circulation in his fingers.

"Yes. Absurd," said Karlax. "Now, I have work to do. If you want to stop by-"

The Doctor cut off the comm link. He stared at the floor, a thousand feelings coming up. He briefly thought to go to Romana for advice, then realized he didn't want to speak to anyone Gallifreyan right now. He decided to just let the TARDIS roam in space while he rested. A bit of smelly debris from the planet was stuck on his shoe, and he went to brush it off. Then he just stopped midway, and slumped to the floor.

It would not be fair on anyone to make them a companion now. His life was hell right now. And he knew, deep down, as he saw the Gelth on the TARDIS view-screen fly off in an unholy rapture into the inky blackness, it would only get worse.


End file.
